Post by jmpff3d on Nov 26, 2018 14:06:51 GMT
The year is 1996 ........ Doug Cotton of CMD speaks out v. piracy ...
From: Doug Cotton
Date: 8/4/96
Newsgroup: comp.sys.cbm
In article <4u2g77$c...@news.us.net>, mha...@us.net wrote:
> You have said my comment about software being used is incorrect, but then
> you stated my point exactly. Whether or not it is unopened and unused, No
> programmer is waiting for it to sell in order to collect on it. It has all
> been sold long ago and they have collected anything that is going to be
> collected.
I thought I wouldn't need to point out those programmers (both individual and in companies) that ARE still collecting -- those writing new apps, and a few left distributing their old ones. These folks have been pointed out in other responses, but offhand I can name a few: Maurice Randall, Nick Rossi, TPI, EBES, Cherry Software, Autumn Technologies, Madman, Brian Bell, Chris Miller, Gary Farmaner, Dave Fergeson, Jim Collette, Thilo Herrmann, CMD, the folks at Loadstar and those who submit material to them.. and the list is longer yet.
This should be sufficient to show that presently available software has not "all been sold long ago" and that not all authors "have collected anything that is going to be collected."
> If you are selling software that is no longer being produced
> then you need not worry about piracy because your supply is limited to a
> certain amount. You are no longer trying to sell as many copies as you can
> because you cannot make more than you have. You need only worry about
> marketing it in order to sell the copies you have available.
How long are we supposed to sit on 200 copies of program X? We're just as entitled to the courtesy you seem to extend only to the original author. How much would he have made without a distribution chain to buy and distribute his program? Frankly, if the program WERE still produced, we'd be in better shape, as we'd only have to buy what we know we can sell. But with liquidations of titles or whole inventories, you either buy a block or you let it go to dumpster-land. There are some programs that I know we have in excess of 500 copies, all because we either had to get it along with a bunch of other things or let it go. If we see 100 copies of something we know users want, we may have to buy a thousand packages of other stuff that won't move as well just to get it. Now we've either got to sell it for an outrageous price (way too high for this market) and toss the junk, or try to get some of the other stuff to move as well. But if we can't recoup what we paid for this stuff plus at least an 8 to 10 percent profit, then we'd have been better off putting our money into some other form of investment.
> Contrary to the belief of a lot the programmers in this newsgroup someone
> who has copied a program probably would not have bought it if they could
> not have copied it.
Those who pirate have always had this 'reason'. But it doesn't wash. If there weren't anything available illegally -- on any platform -- what would these folks do? Write everything they need or want themselves? If they weren't willing to buy software, and it weren't available illegally, then they simply wouldn't have a computer to begin with. I willing to bet a lot of them would have computers anyway and would be buying software as they NEEDED it. Personally, I'd rather have a much smaller overall user base that buys software, than a larger base that doesn't... because eventually some percentage of the honest users start pirating as well.
If only one out of every hundred users who currently gets their software illegally bought only one item a year, our software sales would skyrocket in coparison to what they already are.
> Anyway, sure piracy is illegal. Im not questioning that. However I dont
> think it is affecting anyone in the commodore world in the manner it is
> always stated. At any rate it makes little difference to me, as my
> commodores are usually boxed up and used rarely. I just follow the c= for
> nostalgias sake. Also I BOUGHT all this software for it when I used it a
> lot and I cant bare getting rid of it.
While you're entitled to your opinion, I just can't see what qualifies it. I don't know what you do for a living, but if you've done it for any length of time, I suspect you know how to do it reasonably well. My job and background provide me with the proper figures and skill to make such determinations within a reasonable degree of accuracy. Piracy does impact our sales, and I can further speculate that it also affects other dealers in our market. It also devalues legal software, and creates a mindset that software isn't something you need to pay for. Just get a copy from your friend, or download it. Many honest users faced with that message will eventually take heed, and will stop buying software.
So why should we bother buying things to keep them legally available? If they're going to be openly pirated, why should we have 200 copies of program X on the shelf while we sell a copy every other month? Because if we don't buy these things and stock them, what do the honest users do for software? It is, after all, these users who keep our company in business.
So what bothers me is that I know and see what effect piracy has on our sales. And I know what effect that has on the future of new products by our company, and the other companies in this market. I also have to wrestle with issues like what do I tell someone who says he's got a great idea for a program that he wants to write, when I know the odds are we'll sell a couple dozen when it first comes out, then nearly nothing at all after that? What do I tell the honest users hoping something new will come
out?
And one of things that probably irks me the most is that piracy in the Commodore market was at an all-time low until ex-Commodore turned PC pirates got bored. Suddenly we had emulators, whose main source of software is cracked and pirated disk images that are easily moved to their PC's. It didn't take long for remaining Commodore pirates to make utilities to make use of these images on the Commodore itself. Now we've got CD-ROMs filled with thousands of such images, made to cater to the whims of people who don't even use our computer platform. The presence of these have turned countless BBS's and Internet sites into instant Commodore warez distribution hubs. Real Commodore users now Email me asking when our company will come out with CD-ROM drive for the Commodore so that they can get these CD's instead of having to download the stuff. All while I sit and watch our software sales go from reasonable to almost non-existant.
The point to this that we -- the companies still in this market -- need to maintain a resonable level of sales if we're to bother sticking around. It's up to the market itself as to whether that's worthwhile to them or not. If it isn't, then CMD, SSI, Loadstar, or whoever folds or moves on to doing something else when the sales indicate that. The more people pirate, the more likely that end is to come for these companies sooner rather than later.
Doug Cotton
E-mail: doug....@the-spa.com
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The year is 2018, and the clock continues ticking. Do the same arguments absolutely 100% hold for active/inactive C= material !?
Is it cool to hoard software knowing you'll probably be the last person to see it alive before it all (probably) goes to landfill once you pass on?
...... Constructive comments, please !
